


ketterdam waffle house

by feysund



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, OOC, strangers to bffs to lovers, waffle house au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:08:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27277753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feysund/pseuds/feysund
Summary: The first time she sees him, Nina has syrup stuck to her face.
Relationships: Inej Ghafa & Nina Zenik, Kaz Brekker & Wylan Van Eck, Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik, Wylan Van Eck & Nina Zenik
Comments: 3
Kudos: 37





	ketterdam waffle house

**Author's Note:**

> hi hi i wrote this fic for my lovely friends viv and anaya and it's probably very ooc it's been a while since i read soc but enjoy!! comments are the way to my heart hehe

The first time she sees him, Nina has syrup stuck to her face. 

Ketterdam Waffle House her favorite weekend morning go-to. Her friend Inej is sitting across from her, dark braid tossed along her shoulder. Nina's doing the same thing she always does, spreading out the different flavored syrups and tasting them one at a time, despite the fact that she knows exactly how they all taste and know's she's getting pumpkin waffles, so she's going to use the citrus syrup.

She's in the middle of tasting the blueberry one when Inej clears her throat, bringing back Nina's attention. She's nodding her head at the server, a giant--all gods, he must be over six feet tall--blond waiter, who looks like he'd rather be anywhere else. "What's your order?" he asks gruffly. 

Nina's too stunned to respond. Luckily, Inej has always known what her friend is going to order before even she herself knew, and quickly repeated the pumpkin-and-orange situation to the blond man.

"You have syrup on your face," the (aggressively attractive) waiter deadpans.

Once he had left--more like stalked away--Inej flings a straw at Nina's face. "Are you in there? Hello? Anyone home?"

\---------------

The second time she sees him, Nina has a new job.

Fittingly, it's at the waffle house. Her and her friend Jesper want to go to Disneyland later in the year, so each of them decided to get a job and save up. When they settled upon it, she couldn't think of a better place to work. Surely making waffles couldn't be so hard?

But it's hard to make waffles when you're staring at a man instead of the batter. Hissing, Nina pulls her finger, sucking on the burn and whimpering. It doesn't hurt much, but it's annoying, and she's tired, and there are chocolate chips in her hair. 

"Nina," her employee trainer--Matthias, the blond man from before--says, exasperated. "Come here."

A blush blooms across her cheeks as she waddles over to the sink, where cold water is running. Matthias takes her hand, pulling it under the cold water.

Her blood turns as warm as the waffle press.

"Who hired you?"

"Uh," she pauses. "You."

"Me?"

"I turned in the application, and you didn't even look up. Just told me I was hired and dismissed me."

He grunts.

Smiling, Nina pokes his cheek with her free hand. "You're mean."

Groaning, he swats her hand away. 

"I think," Nina beams,"this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship."

\-----------

And it is.

Somehow along the way, Matthias stopped moping and grumbling, started laughing at her jokes, stopped glaring daggers in her back as she walked away, started getting concerned when she burned her arms on the waffle press.

They're sitting in the break room, with fifteen more minutes for their lunch, Nina's head across Matthias' lap as she holds her phone out, showing him a YouTube video that he just "has to see" but really, he can't hear it because she's laughing so loudly.

"Nina, Nina, shhh," he's whispering, but he can't get it out because now he's laughing so hard, and they're both laughing. The phone drops to the floor.

"Ow, make it--stop, it hurts," Nina whimpers between giggles, clutching her stomach.

"Okay, it's not that funny."

But Nina is still laughing.

"Nina," Matthias deadpans.

She's still shaking with laughter as he walks out of the room, flipping her off over his shoulder, and making sure Nina can't see the shy smile that bloomed across his face. 

\--------

It's cold, the dewy and fresh kind of color, when Matthias rings the doorbell at Nina's apartment.

The door swings open, but it's not Nina and her favorite red sweater for these days, or even her sly friend Inej that comes to the restaurant sometimes. Instead, it's a bored-looking redheaded boy, who couldn't be taller than five foot eight, with a tired nonchalance across his features that could challenge Matthias' own.

"Oh," he says flatly. "Not Kaz." 

And closes the door in Matthias' face. 

Between the whirlwind of questions in Matthias' head and his scoffing and gaping, he doesn't hear the redheaded boy shout, "Nina! It's the soldier guy!"

"Oh for God's sake, Wylan, he's not a soldier, get out of the way, you've literally met him before--"

"He always looks angry," Wylan continues. 

"With you. Because you're annoying."

"No, I don't think that's it..."

"Trust me," Nina huffs as she pulls open the door. "It is."

Matthias taps the toe of his boot against the door, looking down. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

He looks up.

And gasps.

Well, not audibly, but...

There's nothing necessarily different. Nina's wearing that red knit sweater she adores, paired with a pink-and-red floral midi wrap skirt, those white sneakers she's obsessed with on her feet. Her lips are lathered in a sticky-but-lovely looking red gloss, her eyelids and cheekbones dusted with sheer pigments of gold, most of her cheeks covered in an orange blush. She's been going through phases of blush, Matthias knows, since he's met her, and last week she dropped the berry tones and dipped into orange.

And it's lovely, and she's lovely, and he feel's like he can't breathe, let alone speak, so he hands her the flowers (roses the same color of her sweater, littered with white daisies) and she hands them to Wylan who makes a show of putting them in the vase and then closing the door behind her.

"He's usually not like that," Nina explains, although Matthias knows. He's come to many of her and her friends' movie nights, but usually sits there, silently. It's a bit alarming. "He's upset because Kaz--the mean looking one, you know him--did this huge scheme prank thing without him."

"Ah." Matthias nods, pretending he understands, slinking an arm around her.

They end up in a garden near the waffle house, taking a walk and lying on their backs, until Nina has the wonderful idea that she wants waffles and they should go.

"You want to... go to work... on our day off?"

As if it's a proper explanation, Nina shrugs and says, "Waffles."

\----------

When he says it, Nina has syrup stuck to her face.

She's digging through a pile of cranberry waffles, glazing them in blueberry syrup since the citrus one is out. Her stomach is starting to hurt, and she reaches for her glass of water when Matthias clears his throat and whispers, "You're lovely. I'm in love with you."

Nina can't help it. She spits her food into the napkin. "You're in what with who?"

"Love. With you."

"Well." She can't contain the little giggle, the happy flip her heart gives in her chest, like a little love carthweel. "That sucks, because I'm already in love with these waffles."

"Ni--"

"But I guess I can make a little space for you, too."

Fifteen minutes later, when they walk out hand in hand, Matthias turns his head towards her. "You have syrup on your face," he deadpans.


End file.
